“Every time I get a new signing somebody else f*****g takes him!” - West Ham boss Sam Allardyce frustrated by collapsed transfers

It might not be what the fans eager for news on late January signings want to hear but Sam Allardyce feels West Ham must put up and shut up if they are to preserve their Premier League status.

Allardyce said as much, forcibly and furiously, after his side went out of the Capital One Cup, beaten 3-0 by a peerless Manchester City in the second leg at Upton Park and 9-0 on aggregate.

The West Ham manager, who lost two more players — Joe Cole and Mo Diame — to injury, was asked after the match if he thought there would be any signings before the derby at Chelsea in a week’s time.

The 59-year-old’s reply was not without feeling. “I wouldn’t have a clue at the minute,” he bellowed. “Every time I get a new signing somebody else f*****g takes him!”

Allardyce is understandably feeling battered and bruised. His injury ravaged, relegation-threatened side are shipping too many goals but that is no disgrace against a City side who, although out of sight after the first leg, still partnered more than £60million worth of talent up front in the form of Sergio Aguero and Alvaro Negredo.

And just when he and co-owner David Sullivan feel they have a new player in the bag, as with Everton’s Johnny Heitinga and Monaco striker Lacina Traore, the deals fall through.

In more measured tones, Allardyce added: “I’ve never experienced negotiating for so many players and not clinching one. From my point of view, every which way we turn, we cannot keep it as quiet as we want to — I think we might have signed more players had it not leaked into the press and alerted other people. That seems to be the case for every club.”

Allardyce, though, is pragmatic and experienced enough to know that there are not many secrets in football now, especially not in the hot-house atmosphere of the January transfer window when it is in players’ and agents’ interests to spread the word about availability.

West Ham certainly need new blood — and just as importantly their defenders back and fit again.

Roger Johnson, their loan signing from Wolves, epitomises the problem. In each one of the four matches he has played, he has been part of a different back four.

At least in that department, Allardyce was more hopeful. “We have some players coming back,” he said. “Ricardo Vaz Te [striker] will start a game behind closed doors in a couple of days, Guy Demel will also play and perhaps Joey O’Brien, while George McCartney’s not too far off and Winston Reid starts full training on Monday.

“If you give me all those fit as quickly as possible — and staying fit until the end of the season — I think we’ll start drawing and winning games, rather than losing them.

“There are 16 games remaining and we need 22 points. It’s not where you are in the League, it’s the points total which counts.

“Forty points is a safe zone and has been for 10 years now. A total of 38 points has still been good for a number of years but 22 [more points] is a minimum for me.”

Allardyce criticised his team’s abject defending for the first goal last night, which was headed home by a completely unmarked Negredo. The Spaniard scored the third after half-time with Aguero netting the second.

Allardyce felt his side should have had a penalty when Ravel Morrison was tripped. “The way things are going for me, if a Manchester City had punched one of our players in the face we wouldn’t get a penalty,” he said.

At least Allardyce’s captain, Kevin Nolan, returned last night after his latest suspension while Andy Carroll looked closer to full fitness in the 45 minutes he was on the field.

“We could have cut out at least two of the three goals they scored but their players force the mistakes and then the two up front finish it off,” said Nolan. “That’s why you pay hundreds of millions of pounds for a team.

“It’s gone now, we have one focus and that’s to stay in the Premier League. There’s going to be so many battles now until the end of the season and I’m relishing it.”